2008 Woodie Awards
Cursive
Happy Hollow
Jessica Lillie
Issue date: 10/5/06 Section: Arts & Entertainment
- Page 1 of 1
Cursive has always been great at weaving stories into their songs. Their second, and latest, album, Happy Hollow, envelops a single small town and its broken people.
Some fans call Cursive ska. To others, they are indie rock or punk. Whatever the case, all their fans agree on one thing or Cursive is masterful at weaving words.
The first track, "The Opening Hymnal/Babies," welcomes us into the town and to the birth of one of its residents, the baby who's surprised by the hugeness of the world around the baby. The song carries the idea of the world revolving around it, thinking it's meant for something bigger. We're told, "The beautiful truth of it is / this is all we are, we simply exist."
From there we follow the tales of several of Happy Hollow's residents: Dorothy who dreams but doesn't live, priests with deep secrets, the youth being torn from his young love to go to war, the working prostitute, and a vacationing God.
Trumpets, strings, and cynical lyrics highlight each story. We can hear the voice of the grieving teenager. We can taste Dorothy's dead dreams. We can feel, for a moment, the sharp branches of the shady tree of time.
With a bitterness that's nearly intoxicating, Cursive drills their ideas home: we must find some balance between faith and atheism, we must search within ourselves to be content with simple existence, and we must search for the equilibrium that is dreaming away our lives and living our dreams.
We find a lot of noise that seems erratic to the untrained ear. It's easy to find the flow of the album through that top layer of sound. There is bitterness, but there is also a great happiness with simple existence that's hard to be dissatisfied with.
Some fans call Cursive ska. To others, they are indie rock or punk. Whatever the case, all their fans agree on one thing or Cursive is masterful at weaving words.
The first track, "The Opening Hymnal/Babies," welcomes us into the town and to the birth of one of its residents, the baby who's surprised by the hugeness of the world around the baby. The song carries the idea of the world revolving around it, thinking it's meant for something bigger. We're told, "The beautiful truth of it is / this is all we are, we simply exist."
From there we follow the tales of several of Happy Hollow's residents: Dorothy who dreams but doesn't live, priests with deep secrets, the youth being torn from his young love to go to war, the working prostitute, and a vacationing God.
Trumpets, strings, and cynical lyrics highlight each story. We can hear the voice of the grieving teenager. We can taste Dorothy's dead dreams. We can feel, for a moment, the sharp branches of the shady tree of time.
With a bitterness that's nearly intoxicating, Cursive drills their ideas home: we must find some balance between faith and atheism, we must search within ourselves to be content with simple existence, and we must search for the equilibrium that is dreaming away our lives and living our dreams.
We find a lot of noise that seems erratic to the untrained ear. It's easy to find the flow of the album through that top layer of sound. There is bitterness, but there is also a great happiness with simple existence that's hard to be dissatisfied with.
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